Boris Johnson was embroiled in a disputeSorry, your worships, but you had the chance a few years back to ‘bring all the issues into the open’ and you didn’t, preferring to handle it internally. Not exactly cricket to be whining about it now, is it…?
with the Church of England after scrapping plans for an inquiry into allegations that led to the resignation of his deputy, Ray Lewis.
Senior church figures expressed disappointment over the cancellation of the independent inquiry, which was to explore allegations of inappropriate conduct and financial irregularities.
The Church accused the Mayor of London of wasting an opportunity to bring all the issues into the open.
Chris Newland, chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, said: “I'm very disappointed that they are not going to do a proper and thorough investigation.”If Chris Newland is so confident of the need for a ‘proper and thorough investigation’, let’s see him make a complaint to the proper authorities.
Mr Johnson's spokesman said that, in the light of Mr Lewis's resignation, it would have been inappropriate to spend taxpayers' money on an investigation into his past.
Put up, or shut up.
Actually, I had wondered whether it was worth the public expenditure on an inquiry now Lewis has resigned. If he had simply been suspended, then fair enough, but now it is not worth it. If Mr Lewis wishes (as he has stated) to clear his name, then he'll presumably have to do it himself, via another route.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I agree that the Church didn't act when it perhaps should have done, and it now seems to wants others to do their unpleasant work for them, and at tax-payers' expense. Well, they're not getting it. Tough!
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteAll they are doing by whinging about it now (apart from making complete spoons of themselves) is to raise doubts that their actions in this case were quite as apolitical as we would normally assume...
But is that not typical of religious organisations: "Hush dear, don't make a fuss", sweep it under the carpet and hope it all goes away, move the "offender" on to another parish attitude.
ReplyDeleteStill, there's none better at shooting their wounded than the Church.
I think it's typical of any large organisation - if they can hush something up, they will, to avoid bad PR.
ReplyDeleteBut then reopening up the can of worms and accusing someone else of doing so is real chutzpah!
Perhaps the "revelations" were about to come out and the church thought they better come clean beforehand?
ReplyDeleteAgreed that it can be typical of large organisations, though my own church (the Salvation Army) generally behaves better than this overall -- but then one would expect that of them...
ReplyDeleteThis case looks bad for the church in question, though, as they continue to handle the matter poorly. Indeed, the news today has thrown some doubt on whether they really did warn Boris about Ray Lewis.
I'm not impressed. If they were going to make a public statement, they should first have checked not only their facts, but also ensured that they had concrete evidence that could be produced on request.